


Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

by MothMckrakken



Category: Bleach
Genre: F/M, Rukongai days
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-25
Updated: 2021-01-25
Packaged: 2021-03-13 10:40:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28902036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MothMckrakken/pseuds/MothMckrakken
Summary: A short story based on an anon request on tumblr from 2018.Set in the Rukongai, Renji awakes to find that he is sleeping somewhere highly inappropriate...
Relationships: Abarai Renji/Kuchiki Rukia
Kudos: 7





	Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

A cool breeze swept through the trees, raising goosebumps on Renji’s bare arms. He woke gradually, lying on his right side, rubbing the length of his arms with his hands in an attempt to keep the cold at bay and turning his head slightly to nestle into his pillow, which felt rather oddly-shaped. It was only when he realised that the pillow was gently moving up and down that Renji finally snapped out of his drowsiness and opened his eyes in a mild half-awake panic.

Instead of his usual morning view of the wall of a shelter or of Rukia sleeping beside him, or occasionally of sunlit leaves and inquisitive birds when the weather was fine and there had been a wide-branched tree available, Renji found himself squinting at a crumpled blanket with a pair of small feet poking out of the end. Far too small to be his own, but he wiggled his toes to make sure. His pillow slowly rose and fell again, and it only then dawned on him that those were Rukia’s feet. That the blanket was covering Rukia’s legs. That that same blanket continued up her body and under his head. Renji’s face drained of colour, making the following blush seem all the brighter.

His head was lying directly on Rukia’s chest.

He didn’t dare move and risk waking her while they were in this position but his head felt hotter with the movement of each breath she took. How had this happened?!? He must have shifted in his sleep, it was a miracle that Rukia hadn’t woken up and kicked him out of the shelter in a rage. Renji swallowed nervously and considered his options:

1\. Slowly move back to his bed and pray that she doesn’t wake up

2\. Get up so quickly that when she inevitably wakes she hopefully won’t notice that he had been lying on her

3\. Remain paralysed with shock, sweat buckets, and hope that the death she deals him when she wakes will be quick.

About a minute into option 3 Renji had calmed down a little; yes this situation was awkward and just a little terrifying, but it wasn’t all bad. The movement of her breathing was soothing, and in the quiet he could hear her softly thudding heartbeat beneath his ear. At this proximity he could feel it; steady and sure, far steadier than his at the moment. He listened to it with a mixture of comfort and excitement, the very thought that he was by her heart stirred romantic sentiments he didn’t know he had, the kind of thing he’d usually scorn. He knew at the back of his mind that he had been craving such intimacy with Rukia for a long time, it just sucked that she was asleep and that this wasn’t a genuine moment between the two of them. The guilt returned.

Right, I need to move, he decided, gathering the courage to do it. Just as he was about to lift his head, Rukia’s chest suddenly dipped low in a sigh and he saw the movement of her legs stretching under the blanket, only for her whole body to then freeze. Shit, she had woken up.

Rukia’s chest was held still beneath Renji’s head; she must have been holding her breath, something Renji was also doing whilst internally screaming. Her eyes were hot on the back of his head and, to his surprise, he felt her heartbeat quicken; the previously controlled rhythm now jumped frantically. Renji’s mind raced; should he do something? Say something? Pretend to wake up now?

Suddenly, all the questions were silenced. With a touch as light as the brush of a bird’s wing, Rukia began gently stroking her fingers over the long tangles of Renji’s hair that lay loose behind him. Not the reaction he had been expecting. Renji bit his lip as goosebumps once again rose on his skin, but in contrast to their last emergence he was feeling far too hot.

She really didn’t seem to mind him being there, and as her fingers continued to trail through his hair, Renji dared to think that she might even like him being this close to her. Her heart still wouldn’t quite settle. Perhaps if he “woke up” now she would be embarrassed, he told himself, pleasure coursing through his body as her fingers softly glanced across his scalp. Yes, it wouldn’t do to get up now; after a while he could pretend to roll away from her in his sleep, and from there he could gracefully awaken without anyone feeling awkward. Maybe in about five minutes…or ten.


End file.
